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BlackVoices.com Unveils New Design
Relaunches the pioneer brand for African-Americans
online
CHICAGO,
February 19, 2002 --
Barry Cooper, CEO and Founder of BlackVoices.com, the nation's
leading destination for African-American adults online, today
announced a major re-invention of the brand's Web site (www.blackvoices.com),
promising to once again set new standards for network communities.
BlackVoices.com
will re-launch this week with a site redesign offering users
a radically more robust multimedia experience, easier navigation
and increased functionality. The new design spotlights in-depth
coverage of Black entertainment and news, multimedia features
like BlackVoices Centerpiece, and a new, more functional BlackVoices
Career Center. Also prominent is a new member photos section
with nearly 75,000 photos, plus hundreds of thousands of new
and updated member profiles all set in a dynamic new format.
"The
fact that we grew our membership by nearly 25 percent last
year to roughly 800,000 says something important about what
we are and what we deliver for our audience," says Cooper.
"It's an established fact that African Americans are
strong Web users and as we learn more and more about their
online behavior we are able to structure ourselves better
and better to meet their needs."
"We
broke new ground six years ago by proving that African-American
consumers were among the crowds flocking to the Internet,"
Cooper adds. "Now we are poised to lead the way again
and expect this re-launch to push our appeal even further."
"To
our advantage, infrastructure across the Web has improved,
while operating systems have gotten exponentially faster.
One clear benefit for the end user is that style and functionality
have pushed their way back to the foreground. We're also leveraging
better technology and consumer desire for function and style
to add value for advertisers who want their brand to be presented
within a dynamic, well-executed context.
"I
compare the experience on our new site to trading up from
a car with manual transmission to an automatic. No clutch
or shifter to figure out, just press the gas and drive,"
Cooper says.
According
to Valerie Childers, BlackVoices.com director of marketing,
feedback from both customers and advertisers has been essential.
"Both groups have responded well to more news and entertainment
from a Black perspective, more multimedia content and a re-tooled
career center," she explains. The re-engineered BlackVoices.com
Career Center offers e-recruiting solutions to help recruiters
more successfully identify quality diversity candidates while
providing seamless management of both jobs and resume responses.
Since
January, BlackVoices.com members have received communications
telling them something big is coming to the site via e-mail
and on the site itself. The teasers have included chances
to win round-trip passes on Delta Airlines and a grand prize
Caribbean Cruise getaway. The February re-launch coincides
with mailing of the Spring edition of BlackVoices Quarterly
magazine, which offers an inside look at the new BlackVoices.com.
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With
more than 800,000 active members, BlackVoices.com is the nation's
leading news, lifestyle, career and entertainment online destination
tailored to meet the needs of African-American adult consumers.
The BlackVoices brand also includes BlackVoices Quarterly
magazine, which targets alumni, administrators and students
from the nation's historically black colleges and universities.
BlackVoices.com
is a subsidiary of Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB),
one of the country's premier media companies, operating businesses
in broadcasting, publishing and on the Internet. Tribune reaches
more than 80 percent of U.S. households and is the only media
company with television stations, newspapers and Web sites
in the nation's top three markets.
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